Improvement in water-power mechanism



initd '523mm @sind (twine.

ABEL FRENCH, 0E nCENTRAL cITY, IOWA..

Letters Patent No. 103,439, dated .May 24,1870.

IMPROVEMENT IN WATER-POWER MECHANISM.

The Schedule referred to in-thele` Letters Patent and making part of 'che sama To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ABEL FRENCH, of Central* City, in the county of Linn and State of Iowa, have invented a new and valuable Improvement in Water- Power Mechanism; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation ofthe same, reference being had to the annexed drawings making a part of this specification, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon.

Figure 2 is an end view thereof. My invention relates to means for utilizing waterpower, and consists in the construction and novel ai'- rangement of devices, whereby a chain of buckets is passed over two or more wheels or rollers in such a manner that they will be expanded to receive the full force of the current, when moving in the direction thereof, and will befolded up, thereby opposing but little resistancewhen passing in the contrary direction.

.The letters A A designate the rollers overwhich the chain C of the buckets passes. Each roller consists of two grooved disks B B, connected by the shaft a, provided with journals, arranged to rotate in suitable bearings in the walls of the flume.

D D represents smaller rollers, placed alternately above and. below, within the chain of buckets, and designed to support the same.

The buckets E E are hinged to the bars n, to which are secured, at each en d thereof,.the chains c c.

The bars n a serve to keep the chains c c at the proper distance apart.

'lhe buckets are hingedthereto by one edge, in such a manner as to hang pendent when they are passing from the under portion of one wheel to theother.

- In this position it is designed that they shall receive the full force ofthe current passing through the fiume, and, in order to prevent them from being rotated upward on their hinges by the force of the current, the stay chains m m are provided. i

'lhese stay chains are attached to the. lower .edge of each bucket, and-connect the same tothe'edge of the preceding bar n.

In returning from the top of one wheel to the other, the buckets are folded up by the action of the current, and oer but little resistance thereto.

The ume wherein this arrangement is employed may be wholly or partially filled with the Icurrent ot'v v water. lThe wheels and buckets may be either'. wholly or partly submerged. Ifthe latter condition obtains, the action is similar to that of an undershot wheel, but wit-h this difference, especially, that' the number of buckets opposed at one time to the force of the current is not limited by the size of the wheel.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is.- lhe endless chain herein described, having buckets E, gauge-bars n, and stay chains m, in combination with'the stationary rollers provided with the grooved disks B, when constructed and arranged to operate substantially as specified.

In testimony that I claim the above, I have hereunto subscribed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

Witnesses: ABEL FRENCH.

J. A. DAVIS, WM. WISE. 

